Love Isn't Enough
by Night's Warrior
Summary: Coming to the realization that a relationship needs more than just true love to survive, Mikan ends her three year engagement with the promise of never letting love make her a fool again. But how will that hold when she meets a man far superior to the last? Rated T for occasional language.
1. Chapter 1

**Love Isn't Enough**

 **Chapter 1: Ending**

 **A/n: Sorry to anyone who tried to read this at first there was a slight glitch in the posting of the story but it should be all good now. I think it should all be fixed now. Anyways I am Night's Warrior and I've been reading fanfiction for a very long time and recently I have been getting back into it and have contracted a strong desire to be a Beta! To do that I needed to write some more so this story was born from my musings while on a plane ride kind of for this purpose but it's starting to be much more. Anyways please read and review and let me know what you think! Stay awesome friends!**

Mikan woke up in a jolt that morning. The previous night's events springing into her mind like a wild animal determined to be noticed and acknowledged. Rubbing her head, she reluctantly sat up, thinking. She had promised him an answer today after all.

The past three years had been seemingly perfect. She had met the "love of her life" and they had had the love affair of a lifetime. Trips to Paris, cruises through the Philippines, and an engagement story that would change the hardest heart of stone into a ball of putty. Best of all they loved each other like no two people had ever loved each other before. And yet...Mikan sighed. Wiping a few treacherous tears from her eyes she moved robotically to the bathroom and began to get ready for the day.

"How did we get here?" She questioned her shower head. "How did something so perfect come to this?"

Drying off reminded her of the time they had fallen into a strangers pool "on accident" during her final year of high school. On the night of their very first date. It seemed so long ago now.

Finally glancing at the clock, Mikan realized if she didn't leave immediately she would be late to her first class of the new semester. Dredging up the ability to care, she swung her backpack on her back before checking her appearance one last time. "At least I don't look like I spent all night crying" she thought to herself about her eyes which were practically dripping in exhaustion.

The walk to class seemed to pass in a blur. Choosing a seat towards the back she hoped they wouldn't cover any real material today. This was the class she was least looking forward to, math had never been her best subject and it had been two years since she had taken it.

The door opened suddenly with a loud, cracking slam startling all of the students as a formidable and terrifying looking man walked slowly in. Not a sound was to be hear except the sound of his footsteps. When he reached the center of the classroom he abruptly turned and looked at the class through his narrow glasses which when they glinted off the fluorescent lights made it seem as if lightning bolts were emerging from his eyes. He then turned to the chalkboard and began to write while saying, "I am Jinno-sensei, you will refer to me as such and by no other name or nickname or else I shall deduct points from your next test. This is Calculus 1, but I expect you all to already know the basics from pre-cal as I will not be re-teaching them. I hope you all have brought note taking material because we will be getting started straightaway. Your first test will be in two weeks..."

Mikan couldn't believe her awful luck! Out of all of the math professors she could have gotten she had to get this one! This day was just continually going south.

The next two classes went far better than the first, however they began to go by faster than she wished. Every coming second was bringing her closer to the dreaded dinner tonight with her fiancé. Looking down at her ring, she sighed, for about the hundredth time that day. "Why isn't love always enough?" She thought.

Before she knew it, it was time. She got in her car and drove to what had become "their" restaurant. Walking in, she was immediately recognized by the hostess who directed her to the usual table in the back corner. As she approached the table she saw her so-called "betrothed" talking up two very busty girls who were anxiously trying to get pictures and autographs from their favorite band's lead singer. He was soaking up the attention and touching both of them far more than was necessary, especially for a supposedly monogamous man in a committed relationship. "Pfft, yeah right," she laughed to herself. He hadn't even noticed her yet and she was almost to the table. Giving a light cough, he tore his eyes away from the double-D cups and blue eyes met brown.

"Well girls, my dinner companion has finally joined me, but I hope to see you girls on our next tour!" Tsubasa smiled in adieu to the giggling fan girls, his star tattoo crinkling up in a heart melting fashion.

Finally focusing his whole attention of his date smiled at Mikan, "Hi sweetie! How was your first day?"

Glancing at him, she wasn't sure if he was serious or not. Was he going to act like last night had not happened?

"You mean my first day realizing you are a stupid, cheating, lying bastard?" She fake smiled at him, "Oh it was just glorious! I really enjoyed the realization that my trust was entirely misplaced!" Sarcasm was always the best way to handle situations like these after all.

Having the decency to look at least slightly embarrassed he replied, "Look Mikan, I'm so sorry you had to find out like that. I made a mistake. But it was just one and I've realized what an idiot I was and I never want to do anything that will put our relationship in jeopardy again!"

Nodding her head, he began to smile. "Right yeah you're sorry, you made a mistake, makes sense. Besides you were going to tell me about it anyways right? And it's not like that had ever happened before, right? Because you would never lie to me, right? No matter what, I can always count on you for the truth. Or you know your band mates or your songs or your mother...or really anyone really."

The smile had completely been wiped off of his face now. "How did you..."

"I told you. I listened to your songs, your band mates, your mother for crying out loud warned me about this! But I refused to believe any of them. Until I walked into what was supposed to be OUR apartment in a mere five months after we were set to be MARRIED and I find you with some cheap floozy."

"You weren't supposed to be staying there yet..." He muttered.

This made her start laughing. She couldn't believe this. "It was our place. I was trying to get it perfect before showing it to you this week. But then you saved me from that by showing me what an absolute fool I've been for the past THREE YEARS! Tsubasa I gave up a year of my life, a year off of going to college with my friends, in order to help you follow your dreams, so I put mine on the back burner. And I didn't even want to get married yet, that was also YOUR idea. You insisted that you'd like to be married before your next tour once you got back from America. So I consented because I figured it would happen eventually anyways so what did it matter if it was sooner than I had planned? And then you go and pull this shit? I'm sorry but no. No, no, no, NO."

"Mikan..." He said weakly. One last feeble attempt to keep me from leaving him. "I love you."

"I love you too. But I guess love just isn't enough sometimes. I don't trust you. I don't have faith in you. And honestly, I don't want to see you ever again." She slipped off the ring and flung it back at him. "Keep it, I don't need it anymore. Get all of your things out of the apartment by tomorrow. I don't want to see you ever again."

Then she rose, with all the dignity she had and left the restaurant, hopefully for the last time, with silent tears streaming down her face. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a phone and dialed the number of her best friend. "Hotaru, I need ice cream. Or a drink. Or both...Yeah I'm on my way there. I'll explain there...alright see you soon." And without a second thought she drove off into the night, leaving him, her past, in her dust.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: New Beginnings**

 ***I don't own this, author's don't write on fanfiction sites***

A few weeks later Mikan was once again sitting in Jinno-sensei's class drowning in notes, frantically trying to understand what he was writing up on the board. In the following weeks she had gradually moved forward in the lecture hall, largely in order to better see Jinno's scribbles, however this lead to an increased danger of the ultimate punishment: being called on.

Mikan was struggling in this class currently, but every time she went to office hours it felt like she was being struck with lightning, and she always came out feeling like she knew less than before. Tonight she was going to be meeting with a tutor who could hopefully help her to at least understand the torture her brain was going through.

Finally class ended. She had a little over an hour before her next class so she decided to grab a hot chocolate and then mill about in the student union building until that time. It was her second year in the university and that bode struggled times on her horizons. Second year meant time to choose a major and ultimately a career path. Which scared Mikan like no monster under the bed ever could, especially since the only working experience she had thus far was when she managed The Shadow Show band during her "irresponsible" year off from school, which her mother was still very upset about.

Yuka Sakura was a very successful businesswoman, following in the footsteps of Mikan's grandfather who had been retired for many years now. Her father, Izumi, tragically died in the very early years of Mikan's life leaving her with only a few fuzzy memories of a very happy man. After his death, Yuka had thrown herself into her work with a fury leaving her young daughter mostly in the hands of her Ojii-san, not that Mikan really minded. Yet, Yuka always gave the impression that she expected Mikan to follow in her footsteps and work for her company.

Over her first year, Mikan had taken some business courses, yet she did not enjoy them very much and after interning at her mother's company this past summer, she learned that the business world was not where she really wanted to go. In order to bring this up to her mother, though, she needed a new plan. As it happens, as soon as she thought this she walked by a room full of tables and importantly dressed people. Almost walking straight past it, the corner of Mikan's eye was caught by the words "Career Fair" hanging above the door. She vaguely remembered getting an email about this, but many things in life had been a bit of a blur recently. Walking in and taking a look around she quickly ascertained that she probably should have dressed up a bit more. Shrugging it off, Mikan began to walk around and look at the displays and take some flyers.

At one such booth she was in deep thought and wasn't really even paying attention to what she was picking up when a darkened male hand stopped her hand. Looking up, Mikan came face to face with the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

Struck by the shock of a pair of brilliant crimson eyes set over what seemed to be a permanent smirk, she almost didn't hear the words flowing out of Beautiful-Crimson-Eyed-Guy's mouth.

"Those are the male flyers. From the looks of it, I'm guessing you don't want those, although I've been wrong before. But judging on how much you seem to like what you see here, I'm betting you're going to want the female flyers." His eyes twinkled devilishly.

Mikan blinked. "Uh, right, yeah thanks," still not wholly comprehending his words, she wordlessly took the proffered, correct flyer. But as she turned to leave she heard,

"Natsume Hyuuga."

"Pardon?"

"My name. It's Natsume. And yours is…?"

"Ah. Um. It's…" but then something terrible happened. Mikan had still been stepping back away from the unbelievably gorgeous man without looking behind her meaning she didn't see the clumsy man behind who had dropped a large stack of papers all over the floor, right behind her. As Mikan took another step back, her foot came into contact with the very slippery papers causing her to immediately begin wobble, sending her further back into the mess and causing her to fall backwards.

Seeing this, Natsume, who had previously been lounging quite lazily up until this point, sprang into action, leaping towards her just in time to prevent her from completely falling, but not before Mikan's skirt flipped up and he glanced at what was underneath.

As the commotion slowed down, papers floated back down into further disarray around two people, one of whom had closed eyes and was bracing for a fall, and the other whom was holding the first in both his arms. It was like something out of a movie. When the unsuspected female finally opened her eyes, she was once again affronted by the most gorgeous face she had encountered. "So you were saying? About that name of yours?"

"Ahem, yes, my name is Mikan Sakura. I'm a sophomore here, not sure what I'm studying yet or what I'm going to do with my life, kind of why I'm here today. Well I just happened upon it by accident. Sort of spur of the moment otherwise I would look more professional you know. Well obviously you don't know, you don't know me from Adam! Anyways I'll just be going on my way now!" All the while her face had just been growing redder and redder while the gorgeous man smirked at her still in his arms. She tried to get out of them only to discover his arms were like steel and were unrelentingly insistent on keeping her there. "Excuse me, but I really must get off to my next class…"

"You should take Professor Noda's health management class next semester."

"What?"

"The information is in that flyer you took. Take it."

"O-okay…"

"Glad we are in full agreement." He pulled her back upright and just before letting her go whispered, "I'll see you around, Polka-dots."

She silently nodded, uncomprehending, and walked out. It wasn't until she reached her next class that she realized what he had said to her with a jolt. "THAT ABSOLUTE JERK! THAT FREAKING PANTY-PEAKER! IF I EVER SEE HIM AGAIN I WILL RIP HIS HEAD OFF!" Startling everyone around her as she stomped off into the lecture hall all in a huff. She didn't know how, but she would reap revenge on that man, just he wait and see.

 **A/n: So how was it, friends? Also don't worry, several more people will be coming into play, or back into play...leaving it cryptically at that! You're all beautiful!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Inspiration**

 **A/n: I'm so proud of my lazy butt for how quickly I've been updating! It's pretty impressive. Hopefully I'll have this finished before the end of August! Also this story is disclaimed by the mere fact that it is on a FANfiction site, speaks for itself, yadda yadda, now on to the fun stuff! Enjoy!**

Laughing to himself, Natsume helped the poor nervous man pick up his disarrayed papers.

"Th-thank you! Sorry about all that, I'm a bit of a butterfingers," he nervously laughed as he met Natsume's glance. "A-anyways, thanks again! Gotta get going! Jaa!" With that adieu, he scuttled off with all his papers, glasses still askew.

Shaking his head, the crimson eyed man returned to his booth. Resuming his position of languidly lounging against his table he began to thank his previously mourned luck. When Serio-sensei had decided that his "favorite" student would take his shift at the career fair, he had felt as if luck was against him; yet, something good had come out of this unfortunate assignment. He had met an extremely interesting girl.

Because of that the whole rest of the time was actually mildly pleasant as Natsume had his mind was pleasantly occupied with thoughts of a certain beautiful brown eyed girl. When the career fair ended he was even surprised at himself for not even realizing what time it was. It was completely out of character for him since usually he would have been napping under his manga and counting the seconds until he could be free.

When he walked into his apartment that night he was still reeling from that short encounter when his arms were filled by the most gorgeous- "Hey Natsume, want some dinner?"

His thoughts thus interrupted by his roommate, he replied, "Oh sure, thanks Ruka"

"Whoa! A response and a thank you? It must be my lucky day!"

"Hn."

"Damn. So it's not me then. Who's the girl?"

Natsume's head reared up and looked at Ruka incredulously.

"Oh c'mon, you gotta give me more credit than that. You've been my best friend since I moved here in the second grade! I know all of your grunts and facial expressions. You, my friend, have met a girl. And I'd reckon she's pretty spectacular."

"Tch."

"Reasonable bet. I mean it's been years since you've even looked twice at a girl let alone actually taken interest. It's been since-"

"Enough Ruka. I don't want to talk about it." Finishing his sandwich with a definitive look at his friend, he got up and began to head to his room. "I'm going to go study."

"Alright, see you tomorrow Doc."

Smirking, "Night, Doctor Bunny."

With that, Natsume slinked into his room, in an almost cat-like manner. Closing the door and walking to his desk he couldn't contain the groan coming from his chest as the mound of textbooks and homework came into view, reminding him that the rumors about the third year of med school being the hardest were in fact true.

Ever since he was a little boy he had wanted to be a doctor when he grew up, and that desire had only strengthened over time through his numerous sports injuries and his sister's illness. But the amount of work it took was almost enough to make him wish he had gone to vet school with Ruka instead. Almost, but not quite. Bunnies had always given him the creeps, after all.

Rubbing his eyes, he sat down and recalled once more the feeling of that petite body with a smirk. Thus gaining the motivation, he put in his headphones and got to work on that daunting pile of work.

Mikan was late. Not that this wasn't a normal occurrence but this time she had really wanted to be on time. She was rushing to find the correct lounge in the student building in order to find her calculus tutor, worried that if her showing up late would make a bad enough impression that he would refuse to help her. Then she'd be back where she started: hopeless.

Finally finding the right room, she rushed in and saw a guy sitting quietly alone at a table for two people. Mikan walked so fast she practically flew so when she suddenly bowed deeply and began apologizing for her tardiness she actually startled the poor man. Looking up from her deeply felt apologetics, she made eye contact with him for the first time, in startling recognition. "Oh! It's you! From earlier!"

The man fidgeted and adjusted his glasses, nervously replying, "Ah yes, as to that I'm very sorry for my clumsiness. I hope you weren't at all injured! I was totally not paying attention, I really shouldn't have been carrying so many at once and then that cord just came out of nowhere and," hearing laughter, he paused for a moment.

"Really it's fine, don't worry about it. We're even now. You made me trip, and I was rudely late to our first meeting. Sadly, that probably won't be the last time I am tardy. I'm Mikan Sakura, by the way!"

"Tobita Yuu, but all of my friends call me Prez. And don't worry, that probably won't be the last time I cause you to trip!"

"Alright Prez! I think this arrangement should work out quite nicely," she said with a smile and a laugh.

Returning her smile Yuu replied, "Indeed it shall. That aside, should we get started on the real matter at hand, Ms. Mikan?"

"If we have to…" she groaned.

"Alrighty then! Open your book to page…"

 **A/n: hope you enjoyed! I'll try and update again by Tuesday (and hold me accountable please!) Stay awesome~**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: An Epiphany**

 **A/n: Hey everyone! Hope you're having a great week! I've been writing this while on a road trip which ticked off my best friend...so I made it extra long to piss him off more! :) Hope you like it! Stay awesome friends~**

Slamming the door behind her, Mikan stormed into her apartment. Slinging her backpack off her back as she entered her room she went to throw it on its usual spot when she realized that the "usual spot" was nowhere to be seen as it was covered in clothes, trashing, and just general amounts of random crap. Unable to contain her groan, she knew she could no longer ignore the signs. She had to put her big girl pants on and clean the place up.

The past three months had been full of moping, wallowing, and just general, old fashioned anger. The usual break up things. Except this time had been even worse due to the added complications of also having to cancel a wedding.

Finding the motivation, Mikan began to clean like she had never cleaned before. She moved around with a menace: darting here and there, grabbing trash and throwing it away immediately, separating dirty from clean clothes on the floor, throwing the dirty clothes into the washer, folding the clean clothes and piling them on her bed, and straightening anything that was out of place. She even cleaned the bathroom and the mysterious stains on the kitchen counters.

This was her way of cleaning 'him' out of her life. This was her leaving the mourning period. This was her getting over him. Over love.

When she had finished absolutely everything else, she went to her room. It was time to open her closet. When canceling all of her wedding plans she was actually able to get her deposits all back since she all but sold her entire wedding to another couple whose plans to get married in the field where they first met were foiled by that field being turned into a strip mall. She was able to get her money back on or return everything. Everything except one thing.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the double doors as if she was going off to battle. Hanging proudly on the back of the right door was a beautiful white dress.

Four months ago, it had been her pride and joy. She had dragged Hotaru a million and one gigantic, renowned bridal warehouses all over Tokyo and the surrounding cities and it had all come to nothing. It wasn't until they had made a wrong turn on the way home (Hotaru still claims it was Mikan's fault and the wrong turn had nothing to do with her, the driver) when they saw a tiny little bridal store tucked in between a Taekwondo studio and a skivvy looking sushi restaurant. They both thought, "Well what the hell, can't hurt to look."

As soon as they walked in there was a dress on display in the middle of the small store, which only had twelve styles of dresses,. It was everything she had been looking for. Princess styled, strapless, no sequins, and no itchy tulle. It was, in one word, perfect.

When she asked the lady to see that dress, she found out that this was the last of its kind in the store and that it was on sale. They checked the tag and found out it was even in her size. And when she tried it on: perfect fit.

However, now it stood for everything she had believed in and held dear and lost, but sale items could not be returned. So she was left with the perfect reminder of her past.

Two days after the breakup she had gone into the closet to get clothes and had started crying so violently that she had immediately shut it and had relied on clothes from the wash or had just re-worn things for the entirety of the three months. But now it was time to move on.

She had used her brain and had brought a heavy duty, extra-large black trash bag with her and put it over the hanger, tied it at the bottom of the dress and poked a hole in the bottom of the bag for the hook. Then shoving all the clothes to the other side she pushed and smashed the trash bagged dress of broken dreams into the furthest corner she possibly could. Satisfied that Tsubasa was out of all but the very far reaching corners of her life, Mikan put away the rest of her clothes before heading to her desk.

Looking around her newly reorganized and dusted desk, her eye caught a stack of flyers and colorful papers. Recognizing them as the forgotten career fair flyers, she began to go through them half-heartedly. There was sports medicine, entrepreneurship, human resources, the peace core, events management, and many more. Then she got to the final one, and for some reason it seemed to catch her eye. It looked just like all the others, happy people on the front of it with a light arrangement of shapes in varying shades of red and brown, tri-folded for your convenience. Nothing about all that stood out much from the crowd except for the title: Future Health Care Professionals, For the Non-Doctors – Female Edition.

Knowing that this must indeed have been the flyer given to her by the annoying-panty-peaking-pervert she moved to rip it up. And yet the same thing that had made her look at it in the first place stopped her. _What could it hurt to just read it before I trash it? I mean it's not like I'd actually take the class he suggested._

Opening the flyer she began to devour the information. Finishing it, she raced to her backpack and pulled out her laptop, not even waiting until she got back to the desk before opening and booting it up. Then she continued her research on the web.

What she discovered quite surprised her because of one real fact: it excited the hell out of her! There was a whole department of the school dedicated to managerial roles in the health care world. Essentially it would be getting a business degree in health care. This was exciting because she could take classes she liked while still, hopefully, pleasing her mother; however, it did have a downside, shown by her further research, as the class THAT GUY had recommended was the pre-requisite for all further classes. But she couldn't deny how interesting the class looked.

Deciding that all would be well, she sat down and began planning the next two and a half years of her college life with fervor. Once she was done, the fervor still had not worn off thus causing her to attack calculus homework with a ferocity that had never been seen before.

This intensity of feeling was able to carry her until the next week, and with the added bonus of Hotaru's birthday she had enough to look forward to that she did not have time to stress about going home for fall break that weekend and breaking the news to her mother.

No time until Thursday morning that is when she was packing while waiting for Jii-san to come and pick her up. The school had given the students both Thursday and Friday off for classes and many students had even headed out the night before to max out the break as much as possible.

Lost in thought, she almost missed the _ding!_ of her phone, alerting her that it was time to head outside. In a rush, she grabbed her things and ran outside and straight into Jii-san's loving arms.

"Jii-san! I've missed you!"

"As I've missed you, Misa," with a twinkle in his eye as he used his old nickname for her. It had come about when she was very little and just learning to talk. K sounds had been more than difficult for her and had really frustrated the little toddler. So instead of attempting and failing to say them in her own name, she ignored the rest of her first and last names and only called herself by the first two syllables of each. Jii-san had found this so unbelievably funny that her never gave up the nickname. Not that Mikan minded.

"Hand me that luggage, sweetie, and tell me everything!"

So on the long drive out to their house in Minato, Mikan did just that. From Tsubasa and his abhorrent treachery to the change in life paths, she described it all in painful detail while her faithful listener paid her every attention and hung on her every word. Long before the familiar drive appeared she had gotten him on her side for the upcoming "I'm changing my life goals" talk with her mother. They had even discussed strategies for doing so.

Around lunchtime they pulled into the drive of the modest home the Sakura's home. Since Yuka wouldn't get home until after seven o'clock, the youngest and oldest residents of the Sakura household decided to go out for lunch and catch a movie before coming back to start dinner. It was honestly the best day Mikan had had in a very long time.

And then Yuka returned home from work.

In the first place, it had been an awful day of work. Files had been misplaced, deals had fallen through, and, to top it all, the market was down again. If this all had not been bad enough, the traffic and bad drivers on the way home would have been enough all on their own. All she was ready to do when she got home was crawl into bed with a glass of wine and then sleep until tomorrow. Thus, walking and hearing loud voices and laughter helped nothing.

"What's going on here?" Immediately the uncontrollable giggling due to Jii-chan holding Mikan while she still held the mixing spoon, stopped. Putting his wonderful grandchild down, Jii-chan cleared his throat.

"Welcome home, honey! We're going dinner. Well, I'm cooking, Mikan has been butchering our precious baked ziti. Couldn't have that so I was sending her to be on salad duty, where she belongs," with a teasing looking in his Misa's direction.

Massaging her temples, eyes closed, Yuka responded, "Whatever. What I meant is why Miss University Student is at our house on a Thursday night. Don't you have classes tomorrow, young lady? Missing business class is never a good idea you know."

"Oh, did you not get the notices I sent you, mom? It's fall break so I had today and tomorrow off and decided to come home. I figured you wouldn't check your phone so I sent you two emails and a notice in the mail as well as one to your secretary…" she trailed off.

"I must have missed it. I'm going to change, please keep the noise level down."

Once she had walked out, both Mikan and Jii-san let out a sigh of relief. Quietly, they finished up dinner and by the time they had set the table and finished the food, Yuka was back and sitting in her place.

As soon as the meal started, the questions began. "So, are you still going through with this ridiculous 'marriage' thing?"

"No…he cheated on me, we broke up months ago. I had to cancel everything,"

Cutting her daughter off, "Good. It was a ridiculous and childish notion anyways. Did you get deposits back?"

"Yes on everything but-"

"Well good, as few losses as possible. Decided on a major yet? Are you going to work at my company again over winter break?"

"Well as to that…"

"Misa and I have actually been talking about that." Jii-san took over, "We've come to the conclusion that perhaps that would not be the best course of action for her based off her skill sets and interests. However, I do believe we have happened upon something equal if not better." Reasoned the more seasoned businessman.

"Yes! Exactly! I think I want to go into healthcare management!"

"You think?"

"I don't know with absolute certainty, but it sounds more like me and my interests…"

"And what does "management" entail?"

"Organizing doctors, coordinating schedules and donor transplants, watching the books and making sure the hospital stays afloat, working with officials for better policies,"

"So community health and working for the government?"

"What? No! Well, maybe, but not necessarily. Look it's essentially the business of the medical world."

"Then why not just get a business degree? That way you could have a wider range of skills and actually make money and then maybe go help some hospital later."

"Because then I wouldn't be able to take all the science related classes. And I don't want to do it later, I want to do it now. Sitting at desks and punching numbers into spreadsheets in order to count other people's money or to just make more numbers appear and earn useless amounts of money. I want to work in a field where I can make it easier for others to actually save peoples' lives! I want to be able to help as many people as possible in whatever way I can and I really think this will make me happy."

"It won't."

"What would you know about it?!"

"Enough."

"Would you just give it a chance before vetoing something just because it's not what you want?"

"It isn't because it's not what I want, it is because it's a stupid idea. Just like…him."

"Just like who, mom? My father? For your information, my father was a great, happy man, and I'd rather be like him and be called stupid than become a cold, heartless witch like you!" And with that, the happy family dinner ended as Mikan got up and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

Crying, she ran to the only place that had ever brought her comfort in times like these.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: A Change**

 **A/N: I AM SO SO SORRY! I actually had written this part already but then school started and I was super busy, and then I got a new job that I've wanted for the past two years, and I hit writers block hard. Anyways, I'm sorry I have made you all wait (especially to the ones I told that this would be out in a week 3). I can't promise that any new chapters will ever come out on time or promptly, I am the worst person at timing that I have ever known, but I am going to power through my own weaknesses and try and finish this story! I love you all and I hope you don't want to kill me too badly...**

Sitting down hard on the swing, Mikan let out a shaky breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Looking around at her special sanctuary she was able to begin to recover.

At the end of her street was a path which, if you followed off to the left and then took a right and ducked under a low branch, would take you to a small clearing in which there was one lone structure: a worn down swing set. There used to be two swings, but the other had either broken or been stolen long before Mikan found it.

The day she had found this place was similar to this one as well. A clear night, late autumn, a fight with her mother. However back then the fight had been about the fact that Yuka never talked about Izumi. Another classic mother-daughter fight that had never been resolved, just ignored. Frankly, Mikan was sick of this.

A faint rustling could be heard, but Mikan ignored it figuring it was probably just a bunny since no one ever came out here. However, the next time she looked up she jumped so high she fell backwards off the swing, landing hard on her rear.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! This is just the first time I've seen anyone else here since we moved and I was curious, here!" A very pretty girl, around her age was standing over Mikan holding out her hand. Gratefully grasping the proffered assistance she was able to clamber back to an upright position. Shaking herself off, Mikan finally got a chance to actually look at this girl. She was slightly shorter and looked to be only a few years younger with long black hair and brown eyes so deep that they actually resembled a dark red, which seemed vaguely familiar almost like déjà vu.

"Thanks. Sorry I reacted like that, it's the first time anyone has ever been here while I was here."

"Oh no, completely my fault, I should have don't a better job of announcing my presence. I forget that people can't hear me coming in the forest. I'm Aoi, by the way!"

"Mikan. So what are you out here for?"

"We just moved here recently so I don't have many friends yet, and sometimes I just need a break from the hovering, concerned parents. How about you?"

"A fight with a very unconcerned parent," Mikan chuckled. "Let's sit down."

"Oh yes that would be nice. My leg is starting to kill me!" Aoi replied well naturedly, as she very slowly began the process of sitting on the ground. Casually sitting down herself, Mikan glanced at her new friend's progress, finally noticing something for the first time.

"Whoa, that's such a cool prosthetic! Did you get to choose the style and color? Because I think you should get flames painted on it or something!"

Laughing, "Funnily enough that's exactly what my brother said. Most people get too scared to comment on it, afraid they will offend me with their 'ableism' or something. It's refreshing to not feel like I'm being pitied."

"Why would I pity that? It's cool! Plus it's different and different is awesome! I'm kind of jealous I've just got two boring legs."

"Well seeing as the old one was infested with bone cancer, I'd have to agree with you that I much prefer being part robot," winking she giggled.

"Wow. I bet you're really brave. I've decided that we're going to be friends!"

"I'd like that," a shy smile lighting up the raven-haired girl's face.

"So, Aoi! Tell me your story!"

"My story? Ok well I was diagnosed 7 years ago with-"

"No, no, no! Not your cancer story! Your life story! You are more than just a cancer patient! What do you like? What do you want to do with your life? What makes you really, really angry?"

Shocked, Aoi stared at the strange brunette next to her, mouth agape. No one had asked her a question like this before. Trying to recover, she mused, "Cancer has kind of been a huge part of my life for so long that it kind of felt like all I am is just a cancer survivor…I like musicals. And board games! I love board games! My life…I want to live it to the fullest, and help others do the same, maybe help out children like me to not let cancer become their lives.

"Last question was about what makes me angry, right? Well, I don't get mad often but this one time my brother kept trying to get me to eat this really sugary dessert that he really liked. He just kept trying, and trying, and trying and finally I just snapped at him and told him I didn't want to try his stupid dessert. We laugh about it now."

"Well I guess I won't be sharing my favorite dessert with you either!" Mikan replied, holding her stomach which was hurting due to laughing too hard. The girls sat and talked, laughed, and shared their lives for what felt like hours, until Aoi finally glanced at her watch.

"Oh, shoot. My parents are going to kill me! I have to head home now. It was great meeting you Mikan! We'll talk again soon!" And with that, the tiny little girl walked away into the shadows as quickly as her biological and mechanical paired legs could take her and soon she melted into the shadows.

Taking a deep breath, Mikan steeled herself for what she would find in her house, and then pushed herself off the ground beginning her walk home. Instead of dreading opening the door and finding her mother there, Mikan was hoping it would be true. Then that would mean her mother cared enough about where she had been to worry.

For the first time, she realized that in her haste Mikan had left her keys and phone in the house. After a quick perusal of her pockets, this was affirmed as true. As she reached the door she sent up a silent prayer and tried the door knob. Surprisingly, it swung open easily. Yet, her hopes were proven in vain as all lights in the house were off. Her mother had not even cared if she had come back.

Then her eye caught it! On the counter of the kitchen she saw a plastic Tupperware container with food in it and a note on it.

Grabbing it quickly, she read, "Mikan, this is in case you're hungry when you get back. I'm sorry sweetie, she'll come around. Jii-chan."

 _Well at least someone cares._

No longer having any desire to eat, Mikan went and crawled into bed. When she awoke in the morning, Yuka had already left for the office, refusing to take any time off for something as pointless as family.

The rest of the weekend passed quickly. Jii-chan took Mikan to all of their favorite spots, even taking her shopping.

Despite coming on Thursday, Mikan didn't see her mother again the rest of her stay except for briefly Sunday morning when the elder Sakura was leaving for a business trip in Sapporo and the only words she had spared for her only child had been, "Do not disappoint me."

Shortly after the heartwarming mother-daughter interaction, Jii-chan and Mikan left to return her to the university. Determined not to let her disappointing parental interactions bring her down, Mikan started thinking excitedly about Hotaru's birthday celebration which she had very carefully planned. It was all the best, only for her best friend.

She was getting so excited just thinking about it, that she didn't hear her Jii-chan begin to talk.

"-appointed about your mother's reaction. She just gets so stubborn. I blame myself. That's how I was while she was growing up. It wasn't until your grandma got sick that I finally realized what I had done. By then it was mostly too late, but I had always hoped she would not take after me. Sadly it seems losing your father had the opposite effect on her. I know I should do more about it, I just feel so guilty doing so because thirty years ago that was me. But don't worry, I will talk to her, sweetie. I'm sorry. For everything."

Eyes filling with tears, "Oh Jii-chan it's not your fault! This is Mama's doing, and only her. Thank you for supporting me, but I'm fine. Really."

By this time they had pulled up in front of her apartment. Putting the car into park, Jii-chan looked into his granddaughter's eyes and lightly touched the side of her face.

"You are so strong, my Misa."

Overcome by emotion, Mikan threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "I love you, Jii-chan."

"As I love you, sweetie." With that, Mikan jumped out of the car and bounded up the stairs to her apartment. Shaking his head, Jii-chan turned the car back on with a sigh, steeling himself for what he knew he had to do. Neither of them deserve this.


End file.
